A big thank you to Eric from all of us who attended the talk. It was a great morning with lots of positive feedback. Eric was very informative and professional and gave very helpful hints and tips for the amateur photographer in us all and has kindly agreed to a full days workshop next April.

This year, the annual SSBA garden party was hosted by Anne Carlaw, in beautiful Kinghorn. A great day was had by all, the sun shone, the birds sang and all present had an idyllic afternoon. Mary wore her best ‘Garden Party’ hat and was the belle of the ball.

Kinghorn lifeboat which had been in attendance at a fundraising event in Aberdour made an appearance in the bay and executed doughnuts for us in the sea. Everyone was waving excitedly at them and Sam , one of the crew, told me later they were delighted with our response.

We had a plant sale in aid of the RNLI and thanks to your generosity the SSBA are able to donate £300.00 to this worthy cause.

Our grateful thanks to all involved for making it such a memorable day.

We thought our members might be interested in this new competition, although the deadlines are rather close!

Jackson’s (the art supply website) are celebrating Botanical Artists by running a free, international, digital competition: ‘Plant Life: Botanical Illustration’. They are offering the 3 winners watercolour prizes worth a total of £300 RRP, donated by Winsor & Newton, along with promotion across their 9 social media channels and blog which has a readership of over 50,000 people a month.

Once again this year, a prize of £50 will be awarded at the Preview to the winner of the picture deemed ‘Best in Show’ by a panel of three expert judges. In addition, the visiting public will also be able to vote for their favourite picture for the People’s Choice Award.

Visitors can vote for their favourite picture from the Preview opening on Saturday 2nd September, till Saturday 7th October, when the winner will be announced at the SSBA’s ‘Afternoon Tea Event’, and the prize awarded.

We are very grateful to Barrie Scott and Co. (Chartered Accountants) of Falkirk for sponsoring this extremely popular award.

We also have two Meet the Artists days, on Saturday 9th and Saturday 23rd September from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.(11.00 – 15.00) when two exhibiting artists will be on hand to talk to visitors about the paintings in the exhibition, and explain and demonstrate some of the painting techniques used in botanical art. Visitors will also be able to see the paints, brushes, paper and other equipment used in our art, as well as view a painting ‘in progress’.

We also hope to be able to have a special ‘Autumn Leaves’ event for children on Saturday 21st October, when children can come along to the Gallery and Museum, learn how leaves change colour from green to the wonderful autumn hues, and have the opportunity to draw and colour them in, showing these amazing colours. Information about this class will be available nearer the date, through the Gallery.

Botanical art ranges from very specific botanical illustration – with tightly defined style and approach, through to artistic representation of fungi, flowers, seaweeds and all things botanical. Botanical artwork using embroidery/ needle painting is one of many approaches welcomed by the SSBA. Differing styles abound from the very formal and traditional Chinese embroideries through to representations of gardens.

It would be marvellous to have examples of a wide range of media and styles in our exhibitions. Please encourage your friends, relatives and colleagues who do any forms of botanical art to join us in The Scottish Society of Botanical Art and help it achieve its aims.